12/18/08

Anti-Semitism and the Madoff Affair

We were interviewed today by a journalist from the Netherlands about anti-Semitism and the Madoff affair.

He wanted to know what kinds of comments I had to censor from my posts on this blog about Madoff. I told him they were nothing new -- run-of-the-mill stereotypical anti-Semitic accusations of Jewish greed and Jewish control of the monetary system.

I also observed that these comments stopped rather abruptly after it became known that many if not most of Madoff's victims are wealthy Jews and Jewish charities.

Obviously that brutal and tragic factual scenario of a Jewish scoundrel feeding off of Jewish victims does not feed into the common anti-Semitic narrative.

And yes, we know that Madoff did rip off many non-Jewish victims.

But the utter depth of evil of this man Madoff is encapsulated in the vignette of his audacious and persistent subterfuge against his own tribe.

He sat there in the board room for years as treasurer of Yeshiva University and meanwhile stole $110 million from the school's endowment and much more from the accounts of its supporters. Madoff played hundreds of rounds of golf in Jewish country clubs nationwide solely to gain the trust and the funds of fellow members of the tribe.

That set of Madoff bad acts negates all the good and moral teachings of Judaism, of any other religion and of common human conduct.

So it is hard for an anti-Semite to hate a Jew who by dint of his wrongful life has taken himself out of the tribe.

In short, the anti-Semites are rightfully stymied and confounded by the sordid "One Bad Jew v. Many Good Jews" dimensions of the Madoff affair.

I wonder why the comments stopped after discovering that the victims where mainly whealthy jews themselves. Weren't the victims the greedy ones also? They were in it for the money too! Trusting the good name of Madoff.

Anyone blaming this as something that can only be done by jews though, should take a good look in the mirror and realize that this so-called 'evil' lies in all of us.

Speculating isn't earning your money, it's counting on other people gullibility. Nobody should get rich that way.